Just because I haven’t posted about my project in the last two weeks, doesn’t mean I am not working on it. The siding is done, I am working on the rake board and that is about done so this is finally wrapped up. Check out YouTube for more on that.

My niece was having some issues with her car. She asked me to take a look at things. One was an obnoxious clicking noise (even when the car was off) and the other was a headlight that wasn’t working. She bought the actuator after watching some YouTube videos. I took a look at the headlight.

It turns out that there are two actuators in the glove box area. after swapping the closest one, it was still making the clicking noise. Fortunately, the second one was the exact same part, so I took the old one from the front and put it in the back. Problem solved. You can see from the picture that the culprit is broken teeth on the plastic gear inside the housing.

Supposedly, my nephew changed the headlight bulb a couple months ago. I suspected that the problem was bigger than the bulb. Well, it didn’t take long to identify the problem. One wire was broken and the connector was burned (and the bulb was ruined). The wiring harness was snaked through the headlight assembly. I was hoping that I could just purchase the piece that I needed without replacing the entire assembly.

After a trip to the parts store, they gave me the idea of simply splicing a new connector onto the existing wiring. The only problem was that the new connector was much bulkier than the original so I ended up cutting the plastic structure so I could fit the bulb and connector in the space properly.

The whole thing took about three hours. The first was messing with the actuators trying to determine the problem and how to get to it. Then it was two hours to get the things put back together and get replacement parts. Considering the scope of what needed to get done, I think the time was pretty reasonable and they are now fixed.

End Your Programming Routine: Admittedly, if I was a mechanic, I probably wouldn’t have approached the project in the same way. However, I didn’t do anything that I wouldn’t have done to my own car. Despite the fact that I had to do some modifications to make it work, I still believe that the work was quality and this should be a permanent fix.